The voice was right next to Kakuzu's ear, as if death itself were breathing against the back of his neck.
" Earth Grudge Fear - Final Form!"
Extreme fear caused Kakuzu to completely lose his mind! He recklessly released the restrictions on his body, and the black lines within him surged wildly, instantly transforming him into a terrifying monster several meters tall, covered in black tentacles and five bizarre masks!
"Get out of my way! I'm someone who fought the First Hokage! I can't die here!"
Kakuzu roared, and all five masks opened their mouths simultaneously, preparing to unleash the most powerful combined Ninjutsu of his life.
But in the face of absolute Kamui, all of this was nothing more than a laughable struggle of a trapped beast.
"Fought against Hashirama? He was nothing more than a stray dog who threw a Kunai at him from 800 miles away and ran. You really think that's something to brag about?"
Gen'yō's voice, filled with endless mockery, fell.
Time stood still once again.
It wasn't Genjutsu; rather, the golden Susanoo's giant hand unleashed a Kamui power that instantly made the surrounding space as hard as steel!
Kakuzu's enormous monstrous form was frozen in mid-air. The five elemental Chakra that had just gathered in the mask's mouth was forcibly forced back into his body by the solidified space around him!
"What... what do you want?!" Despair filled Kakuzu's green eyes. He realized that his prized Earth Grudge Fear was like a frog on a dissection table in front of this god-like man, powerless to resist.
I won't kill you.
Gen'yō's words gave Kakuzu a sudden surge of joy, but before that joy could spread, the next sentence plunged him into an ice cave.
"But your life now belongs to me. As for those things that don't belong to you, they should be returned to their rightful owners."
What's the meaning?!
Before Kakuzu could react, the giant golden hand suddenly dispersed in the void, transforming into five sharp golden fingers, each as sharp as a javelin!
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Five golden beams pierced five vital points of Kakuzu's massive body at an incomprehensible angle and speed!
There was no splattering of blood, nor the pain of flesh being torn apart.
Those five golden fingers seemed to exist outside of reality, piercing directly through Kakuzu's flesh, bones, and the dense black lines, precisely pinching the five hearts hidden deep within the monster's body!
"This is... spatial displacement?!" Kakuzu felt the five vital points in his body locked by foreign objects and went completely insane with fear!
"I also know a little about medicine. This ' Remote Heart Extraction ' surgery doesn't require anesthesia, so just bear with it."
Before he could finish speaking...
With a thought, Gen'yō suddenly pulled the five golden fingers that had penetrated Kakuzu's body outward!
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Five consecutive, muffled heartbeats echoed in the air.
Under Kakuzu's utterly horrified gaze, five hearts, still slightly beating and enveloped in a golden spatial membrane, were "pulled" out of his body out of thin air and floated silently in mid-air!
Wind, Fire, Lightning, Earth, Water.
The five life cores that sustained him for nearly a century were instantly stripped away by Gen'yō using such an inconceivable conceptual method!
"Ugh..."
Deprived of his heart's power, Kakuzu's enormous monstrous body instantly withered. Countless black lines scattered across the ground like lifeless, withered grass. He reverted to his gaunt old man form, collapsing to the ground like a tattered rag, his mouth agape as he gasped for breath.
Although his five hearts were taken away, Gen'yō deliberately preserved a trace of the core activity of his Earth Grudge Fear, putting him in a bizarre state of "wanting to die but not being able to, wanting to live but not being able to live."
This feeling of powerlessness, of being unable to control his own destiny, was more terrifying to him than being killed outright.
"You... you devil..." Kakuzu lay weakly on the ground, looking at the five hearts that had once belonged to him in mid-air, the light in his eyes rapidly dimming.
A bounty of 10 billion? That's a joke! What kind of indescribable being has Konoha offended?!
"Don't close your eyes yet, our deal has only just begun."
Just then, the golden Susanoo hand vanished. In its place appeared a slowly rotating Uzumaki of Kamui in mid-air.
A parchment scroll emitting a faint golden light floated down from the Uzumaki and landed lightly in front of Kakuzu.
The paper was densely covered with a dazzling array of clauses written in the ancient script of the Uchiha Clan. At the very bottom of the scroll were two striking characters:
[ Divine Kingdom Special Employment Contract ].